One area of the diplomatic history of the second world war that has only recently come under examination is the role played by Spain. Within this field, work is now slowly starting on Spain's relations with the United States.1 During the years 1943-4 the United States and Great Britain were conducting negotiations with Madrid in an attempt to have Franco impose an embargo on the sale of tungsten ore (wolfram) to the Germans for use in their ballistics industry. The occurrence of the so-called Laurel Incident during these talks delayed the final outcome of the negotiations. Spain, attempting to stay out of the war, used for this purpose, inter alia, the advantages she enjoyed in her trade with the Allied and the Axis powers. Only just beginning to recover from the losses and convulsions of an exhausting and costly civil war, Spain was in no position to gain from joining in the hostilities. The tungsten talks were one means of maintaining a balance between the influence of the two belligerent sides. The Germans viewed Spain as a friend during the early stages of the war but by the time of the Laurel Incident were fearful that Franco would turn against Berlin. Between September 1939 and the end of I944, the Allies considered Spain as a potential enemy because of her well-known economic and political associations with both Italy and Germany. The authoritarian character of her government, her civil-war record, and attempts to meet the